Party Political

Ever since I was young and heard in movies about how the government spends too much money on things like toilet seats in order to hide other expenditures, I've accepted that there are things that are paid for that the public doesn't know about. On paper, a toilet seat costs hundreds or thousands of dollars. But in reality, it's not the toilet seat that costs so much. It's other stuff.

Hearing about Edwards and his expensive haircut got me wondering. Is this one of the rare times when the public is acquainted with a legitimately expensive purchase? Or is this a cover-up?

I've also come to accept that people running for office probably act just like the government, and spend money in areas that the public isn't supposed to know about. But in Edwards' case, I can believe that he did in fact pay that much for a haircut.

Why? Because I'm also aware of how high-end services in the "make me look good" industry can come with exorbitant price tags. Celebrities were in the news a few months back because of the big money they paid for such things as sunglasses. You can cheaply get a pair that looks just as good as one that cost a celebrity $1000, and yet the celebrity is still willing to pay that much for it.

I think part of the high prices have to do with goods and services being of exceptionally high quality, and part of it has to do with a scam. It's the scam where someone works on someone famous, and that famous person approves and recommends the worker to their high profile friends. Pretty soon the worker is getting paid a lot of money, maybe because they're worth it, but at least partially for the simple reason that the abundantly wealthy people can get used to paying high prices. I think it may even reach the point where rich people overpay out of habit.

So is Edwards' haircut worth that much? I doubt it, unless he has some complex scalp condition. And anything's possible. For all we know, he could be severely balding, and the $400 is paid to a miracle worker to make his hair look as decent as it does.

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